Project 444834

Hip fracture is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality; it happens easier in older people especially females. A question here is: what makes bone fragile as we become older? Current consensus is that our femoral bone becomes weaker and brittle because of the loss in bone mineral density. However, there are some unique aging related structural changes to femoral bone. These include increased porosity and decreased thickness in cortical shell. Additionally, we recently discovered that the femoral cortical bone has a layer of highly mineralized tissue covering the surface of human femoral neck, which is extremely brittle. We hypothesized that the presence of these weak structures directly increases hip fragility. In this project, a biomedical engineer with expertise in bone fracture, a bone imaging specialist, an experienced bone biologist and an orthopaedic surgeon teamed up to study the impact of decreased bone quality on hip fragility fracture. By using various advanced microscopy techniques, we aimed to answer the following three questions: Why is femoral bone fragile in older people? Are there any differences between older male adults and female adults? What are the roles of bone quality in second hip fractures? Answers to these questions will advance our knowledge on bone biology and mechanics, help to develop new techniques of bone diagnoses and lead to new measures of preventing second hip fractures.